The Hunt - Megan Shepherd Page 0,105

All this time she had thought the markings were some elaborate puzzle, Cassian still manipulating her, and it was a puzzle. But it wasn’t about twisted ideas of love, like she and Lucky had thought.

It was a message of hope.

A promise.

I believe in you, Cassian had said. In all humans. Your species has the capacity for such rich emotions; selfishness and greed, yes, but also truth and forgiveness and sacrifice. When you believe in a cause, nothing can stop you. If anyone deserves to be the fifth intelligent species, it is you.

She pictured that final image of him strapped to the table. A pain started somewhere beneath her ribs, and she shifted in the chair, but it didn’t go away. She gripped the edge of the control panel, searching the stars for the pinprick of light that might be Earth.

She had earned home, hadn’t she? She needed home, didn’t she? But, Lucky’s voice whispered in her head, does home need you?

She let out a shaky breath. Lucky had been delirious. It wasn’t fair of him to hold her to impossible standards. Noble missions were for people like him. Like her father.

She looked down at the secret symbol on her hands again.

Cassian, who had risked so much already, had risked this small defiance too.

Over her shoulder, she saw Nok and Rolf holding hands, in silence. Mali was still massaging Anya, who had started to mumble. Lucky’s tarp was so terribly, tellingly still.

She clenched his notebook. Did he truly believe that their purpose was back on that station?

Did she?

An overwhelming wave of panic gripped her. She ran a hand over her forehead, shaking her head back and forth. This was crazy. The only factors they had working in their favor were a cache of dart guns and a few humans who’d covered for them before. And yet, wasn’t that what it meant to be human? To take chances that weren’t always logical? To not give up, if there was even the slightest hope?

She spun around in the chair. Leon frowned at the look on her face. Mali stopped rubbing Anya’s feet. Nok and Rolf blinked with grief-stricken eyes.

“I’ve been thinking,” Cora blurted out.

Her voice caught up to her all at once. She cleared her throat and looked back at her knit fingers that displayed the Fifth of Five symbol.

“I think we should turn around.”

THE SHIP PITCHED SHARPLY to the side without warning. Cora’s head connected with the control panel with a starburst of pain. She reached out a hand, feeling for the wall. The others were yelling, but her ears were ringing too loudly to hear them. The ship pitched again and her foot connected with something large as she tumbled to the ground.

The ship abruptly righted again.

“What are you doing?” Nok yelled at Bonebreak.

“Girl says turn us around,” he answered. “I turned us around.”

“We need to discuss this first!” Rolf said.

Cora blinked through the black dots until her vision began to clear. There was a pale shape in front of her with sweat-soaked hair. Her stomach clenched—she had tripped over Lucky’s body.

Nok spun on her. “Are you crazy? Why would we go back?”

Cora pulled herself back into the second pilot’s chair and gripped the seat tightly. “Just hear me out.” She spoke cautiously, knowing how unpopular the idea would be. “This is bigger than us. This is about proving that we’re more than the Kindred think we are.”

Bonebreak chuckled.

Cora threw him a sharp look. “Just keep steering.”

“Cora is right.” It was Anya, her eyes cracked open, though her gaze still looked hazy. “Running away solves nothing.”

“Says the girl who’s been drugged for years,” Leon muttered. “No offense, kid, but you have some catching up to do.”

“Just because I was drugged,” Anya countered, “doesn’t mean I didn’t know what was going on. I saw it all. Every corner of the station. Even yours.”

That shut Leon up.

Cora went over to where Anya sat. “You can really tell what’s going on throughout the station, just with your mind?”

“Not all the time,” Anya said, rubbing her forehead. “But when I was drugged, I could. The Kindred thought drugging me would dull my mind, but it just showed me how to unlock it in new ways.” She looked down at her trembling hands. “Even if it did leave me damaged.”

Rolf pushed up from the floor. “You’re all forgetting the most important thing: it will be impossible to beat the Gauntlet now. We’ve missed it. Today is the day it began, and besides, guards will arrest you—all